Driving your car recklessly in Milwaukee County? Now, a sheriff’s deputy might take it away.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley signed an ordinance into law on June 3 that empowers Milwaukee County sheriff deputies to impound vehicles involved in reckless driving. The effort is part of the county and city’s Vision Zero initiative, implemented in 2022, that aims to eliminate all fatal traffic accidents and serious injuries by 2037.
“If we want a safer future for Milwaukee County, we must get serious about combating reckless driving,” Crowley said at a signing ceremony at the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation administrative building in Wauwatosa. “Our local law enforcement agencies will now have a tool at their disposal to target reckless drivers and to prevent them from repeating dangerous behaviors that affect all of us in our community.”
The ordinance was approved by a 14 to 4 vote of the Board of Supervisors on May 28. Vehicles can only be impounded by deputies at the time of issuing a citation or making an arrest for reckless driving. The owner of the impounded vehicle will pay fees and any outstanding fines before retrieving the vehicle. The owner has 90 days to claim it before the Sheriff’s Office can sell or donate the vehicle.
Vehicle collisions are “one of the leading causes of death and disability” in Milwaukee County, Crowley said. From 2015 to 2024, the number of traffic deaths in Milwaukee County increased, even as the total number of accidents decreased, according to Dr. Sehr Khan, emergency physician at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a member of the Milwaukee Area Safe Streets Taskforce.
“Over the past 10 years, the number of people dying from speed-related crashes in Milwaukee County increased by more than 40%,” Khan said.
But 2025 saw a small improvement in these numbers, Khan said. In 2025, the City of Milwaukee saw a 19% decline in traffic fatalities compared to 2024 and a 26% decline from their peak in 2022, according to the City of Milwaukee’s Vision Zero director, Jessica Wineberg.
Reports of reckless driving from across the county are one of the most common complaints to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office, Inspector Douglas Holton said, especially in county parks and on area freeways. The Sheriff’s Office investigated 153 incidents of reckless driving in the past two years, he said. In particular, Sheriff’s deputies have seen an uptick in drivers who have never held a license.
The new law will hold reckless drivers and vehicle owners accountable, Holton said. He hopes impoundment will force drivers to pay the fines they often ignore
“When you tow their vehicle, that changes everything,” Holton said.
In accordance with state law, the text of the ordinance specifies that the decision to impound the vehicle of a driver cited or arrested for reckless driving is entirely up to the “officer’s discretion.” This decision is “final,” the ordinance reads, subject only to “judicial review.”
Holton said the Sheriff’s Office had already been discussing this process with deputies. Officer discretion is designed to prevent impoundment if, for example, the owner of the vehicle is not aware that the driver had borrowed it, Holton said. Deputies will make these decisions on a “case-by-case basis,” he said.
The City of Milwaukee enacted a similar ordinance expanding MPD’s ability to impound vehicles in November 2025, days after the state Legislature changed state law to allow municipalities to impound vehicles for reckless driving regardless of whether the driver owned the vehicle.
According to the Milwaukee Police Department’s Traffic Safety Unit, MPD has impounded 154 cars involved in reckless driving so far in 2026.
At the May 28 meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Justin Bielinski criticized the county’s attempt to replicate the city’s efforts.
“I don’t really support making it easier for the government to impound our property,” Bielinski said. “I don’t think this is really going to change behavior.”
At the same meeting, Supervisor Steven Shea, who also attended the signing on Wednesday, said he understood some of his colleagues’ hesitancy to expand impoundment, but that the move was necessary to get the attention of reckless drivers who repeatedly ignore and fail to pay fines.
“This is a tool to get the scofflaws’ attention,” Shea said. “If you’re going to drive like a lunatic and not pay your fines, you’re going to forfeit your car, at least temporarily. And they won’t get back their car until they’ve paid their fines.”
Supervisor Kathleen Vincent said the new ordinance would also help victims of car theft find their vehicles.
Once a vehicle is impounded, the Sheriff’s Office is required to confirm whether the car is stolen and notify the lawful owner of the vehicle. If the vehicle is stolen, the sheriff can dispose of the vehicle within 60 days if not claimed by the owner.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County deputies to impound cars involved in reckless driving
Reporting by Zachary Suri, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Zachary Suri, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
